Both indoor and outdoor cooking has increased in popularity and has led to a variety of cooking devices such as smokers and stand-alone or non-stove top fryers (cooking fluid cooking devices as in frying with oil or steaming with water), with an example being fryers such as the electric turkey fryers of Masterbuilt Manufacturing of Columbus, Ga.
Various conventional cookers of the smoker type also exist and the heat sources for such cookers are typically based on various fuels (or combinations thereof), as in gas, electric (e.g., electric resistance bars or infrared ceramic plates), charcoal, etc. Smokers have also gained in popularity as a smoker provides for imparting a desirable smoked flavor to the food and the cooking technique is generally carried out at low to moderate heat levels. The smoking cooking techniques can also promote basting of the food as the juices from the food are caught and vaporized to baste the food to keep the food moist and prevent dehydration while the smoke flavor is imparted to the food. In addition, with the inclusion of a drip pan the juices can be captured and this drip pan can also hold fluids such as water which, in conjunction with the heat source, provide additional moisture in the food being smoked (e.g., meats, fish, etc.).
A typical conventional smoker assembly includes a housing containing one or more grill racks, the above noted pan positioned below the grill for drippings collection and vapor generation, a heat source, and a wood chip tray or rack, placed adjacent the heat source, to hold the smoke producing material (e.g., to generate the smoke there is typically used materials such as hickory, alder and mesquite wood in any one of a variety of forms as in chips, briquettes, and saw dust).
In addition, the prior art devices include stand alone smokers as seen, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,713,267; 4,417,748; 4,309,938; 4,020,322 and 3,776,127 as well as those that are designed as an added feature to a grill assembly as seen by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,891,498; 5,718,165; 5,167,183 and 4,770,157. Additionally, the prior art discloses a variety of structures for generating the smoke and providing the smoke to the food, including a generally common housing embodiment with both an internalized firebox (where the material is subjected to heat and initiates smoke generation) and a smoke/food contact chamber or smoker location (where the smoke is applied to the food) as seen from U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,857; those with an exterior fire box with direct attachment to a smoker housing as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,533; as well as those that are externally connected to the smoking location via a smoke conduit or the like as seen from U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,939.
The above noted references additionally illustrate ways of supplying the smoke generating material, with U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,939 featuring a supply stack of pellets which are fed via a motorized pusher assembly to the smoke generation location, U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,127 illustrating an upper domed cover which provides access to the interior of the smoker when cool, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,891,498 and 4,309,938 showing a door access arrangement and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,770,157 and 5,718,165 illustrating sliding insertion drawers.
A problem associated with the prior art cooking devices and particularly smokers is the inability to accurately monitor the true status of cooking despite the ability to estimate based on prior experience with a cooking apparatus. This often entails periodic checking of a product as in opening a smoker door and testing the food product for temperature level. Particularly when dealing with smokers, this temperature monitoring activity can lead to an alteration in the cooking schedule or a loss in heat build up. This same problem is also associated with fryer devices as in electric turkey fryers such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,857 to John McLemore and incorporated herein by reference. In the case of an electric turkey fryer, for example, the bubbling cooking fluid about the submerged turkey makes it very difficult to monitor the degree of cooking the turkey has undergone. Also, the testing requirement undesirably places the user in close contact with high heat items as in the cooking fluid, heat resistors, and heat conducting components of a cooking device as in a rack. Thus, there is a need to accurately monitor the cooking state of the food product while avoiding the need for close proximity to the cooking device. In addition, during operation of cooking devices it is helpful to be able to have freedom to move around to different locations particularly with smokers with their long cooking times, while still providing for ready access to the current state of the device whether that be by external consideration (e.g. external viewing) at the cooking apparatus location and/or via a remote monitoring. An operator may also desire the ability to easily alter the cooking settings or characteristics of the cooking apparatus at location and/or a remote location such as increasing the temperature to shorten the time period of cooking in a smoker, etc. The prior art has not met these desired requirements relative to monitoring the cooking characteristics. For example, there exists wireless remote cooking thermometer such as represented by U.S. Pat. No. 6,811,308 featuring a hand held transmitter with plug in temperature probe and a receiver with display screen. The hand held transmitter is placed adjacent to food being cooked and the probe is inserted into the food fold being monitored. This is ill suited for cooking apparatus such as a smoker where the smoke can heat can quickly tarnish an object inserted into the smoker or electric fryers where there is not a good support location for a hand held transmitter.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,377,733 and 4,475,024 illustrate wireless temperature probes for a cooking utensil such as a microwave oven, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,662 describes a liquid cooking vessel temperature sensing system, while JP Patent No. JP62062130 to Hitachi Heating features a remote controlled cooking unit. These references are incorporated herein by reference for background purposes.